Foosball and Halloween

October 31, 2001

Well, it has been a while! I have had many small things happening in my life, but nothing of major importance. Let's cover work first, get that out of the way. When I last wrote, my senior Half.com coworker had been moved to eBay and I was the lone guy on the graveyard shift. They have hired a new class of 30 people, 7 of which work graveyard shift and the others work swing shift. I have been the post training of the 7 that work graveyard shift. When they have a question they ask me! It has been a great change of pace. Rather than just staring at emails I get to walk around and talk to people which is very nice. I have gotten to know them and also gotten to know how much I actually know about Half.com. It's scary!

Lately at work, all the rage has been about fooz ball. They have tournaments on breaks and a schedule to sign up for the table. There is always someone playing foozball. You're probably thinking "oh geez, who cares?" I thought so too. I never played and then someone invited me in and now I'm all caught up in it. It's quite maddening. Also thrilling to crush your opponent like a grape. Anyway, I'm not the best in the building but not to brag, I can hold my own against the best!!!

Okay, anyway, It's Halloween today. Yesterday Paul and Amber and Myself, along with Ivory, Amber's little sister, all went to a haunted house. It was very fun. Complete with spitting monsters and dummies that come to life and chase you around and walls that spin and make it difficult just to stand up. I went in to this haunted house thinking "ok, let's get this lamity over with." I actually ended up enjoying it very much.

After that we all went back to casa del Greenwood and carved pumpkins. We had some great faces and didn?t cut a single finger off.

I have been able to recently add some pictures I have saved up on my digital camera and wanted to post them here. When Amber and Paul and I went to Lake Powell we encountered a very small natural arch which I present to you here. We also had a chance to teach amber to fish and visit some ancient anasazi ruins where we met a rather large heard of children. We demanded they pose in a picture for us. Between the three of us we have found we thouroughly enjoy a good game of pool which I present to you here. Eddie has been busy running sound and fighting his first year through college (which he is acing I understand). We caught his highness here while running sound for an event at a local park.

My work is done here. Looks like the family is flying to Michigan this Christmas to meet family and friends there. No major plans for next month. I need to fix my homepage. I'm getting several emails each month telling me of broken links. I can fix that people, just give me time! Not on the priority list!!

Half.com Grows

October 13, 2001

There have recently been some tremendous changes at eBay and Half.com. Let me explain a bit about the relationship between Half.com and eBay. Half.com was an independent site that was purchased by eBay in 1999. The eBay company was based in San Jose, CA and Half.com is based in Philadelphia, PA. There has been talk of moving Half.com employees to PA or vice versa, but we have been told no moves would take place so I really haven't thought about it. Well, yesterday I was told that the PA center would be closed and all the jobs would be moving to Salt Lake City to work in the eBay support center. What does this mean for the involved parties you are no doubt asking.

It means many PA reps will not be making the move as they have lives of their own. This means great opportunity for Craig. Basically I am thinking, "here come the promotions". But, no telling what could happen.

On top of this, one of the more senior Half.com reps here at SLC, the person who basically trained me, left Half.com and went to eBay support. Same place just, different job. This means that on the graveyard shift Craig is the most senior Half.com rep. I have never been the senior most anything of anything ever in all my life. Even when I was a senior in high school there were older people or second year students or something. But now, all the new people ask me things and all the old people refer any Half.com questions to me. This is interesting to say the least.

It's fun though and I'm actually liking it. I have all ready accepted the fact that I could be fired with any wrong move! I mean, my stats are not the best. My email per hour is low, my quality is low. Granted I am the guy working in all the trainees clean up queues, and I am hoping that management is aware of that when they see low productivity. In any case, all this change is beginning to climax and its quite exciting.

Not much else has been happening life-wise. Working and sleeping, eating out with Paul and/or Amber when I can. Goals lie in saving money for a down payment on a house. Tomorrow is a play at Eddies school. Something to do with Andrew Lloyd Weber. I don't know. I'm going to go and enjoy that. Also, I have just passed up the one year mark for this journal. The first entry was October 2^nd of last year. It's very interesting to read my events of a year ago, for me anyway! That's why I'm keeping this journal though, so it seems to be working! Other than that, I have nothing more to say. May all of your lights be green!

Die Sallie Mae, Die!

September 25, 2001

I officially have some exciting news. The meeting of a large goal has been completed. Remember my student loan? Well, that's all you can do because it is only a memory. As of yesterday I wrote a check for $9,000+ and paid it off. Yes, that is correct, it is gone my friends. I'd like to use this time to gloat.

I began making payments on this loan in November of 1998. I was supposed to pay $200 a month for ten years. It's kind of like getting married except there's no sex, and at least there's an out after ten years. Wanting to kill the loans as fast as possible I increased my payments to $350. I made payments strong for two years. I knocked the loan down to $11,0000 from $17,000. But it wasn't enough. Then the whole Nashville collapse happened. Bills were owed, money was not coming in. I was forced to cut my loan payments down to $200 a month. I began work at eBay, raised $10,000, and paid it. This means that even though I had ten years to pay it off, I did it in 3!

I now owe nothing to anyone in the world. I am 100% debt free! Now, we save. And then I will buy house, or domicile of my choice, be it a condo or whatever. I'm also going to do some other things financially speaking. But for today, screw the world, my debt is dead! Hurrah!

9/11 Occurs, Life Continues Unabated

September 14, 2001

Just thought I'd drop a journal entry since it has been a while. No pictures this time! Sorry! Two weeks ago my sister visited with Brian, her husband, and Abby, my niece, their daughter (follow the family tree?). We went to the mountains and I helped Abby throw a great deal of rocks into a lake, which she thoroughly enjoyed.

This last weekend Paul and I went fishing on the Jordanelle reservoir with my dad. The fish beat us very badly this time around. My dad caught 1 small mouth bass while Paul and I practiced the intense duty of repeatedly casting into the water and retrieving sticks from the bottom of the lake. The highlight of the day was lunch, which consisted of a sandwich and a cold no name soda pop.

The World Trade Center was hit with two airplanes a few days ago in what they are saying is a terrorist activity. I am not adding this here as a memorial or as a way to raise awareness. I leave that to the hands of Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings. This is really here serving as a monument to when this happened so that when I look back on this journal in the future that I will know what was happening in my life when it happened. It was a big activity though. I remember hearing about it over IM from a girl in PA who works at Half.com headquarters. I didn't believe it. I am lucky not to have lost anyone close to me, but not knowing what that is like I find I am having a tremendous time empathizing with those who did. I end up watching it as if it were a movie rather than real life. I'm not sure that makes sense. I feel very detached from the whole thing. The most extreme thing to me is the fact that people stuck on the 80^th + floors were jumping having nowhere else to go. There was a picture in the newspaper of a man simple falling head down to his death on the backdrop of a burning building. Truly morbid. I find myself fascinated with the physical science of it all, with the size of it, and the violence of it. The fuel, the weight, the expertise in planning the event. Yes, it's terribly tragic, yet at the same time so compelling and even amazing that several people could actually pull this off. The lying that took place over a long span of time, the guts to go through with it, the communication not to leak any thing. I love to watch the news hoping for news of what has happened and who has been caught. It's also quite comical to me the graffiti that happens on the net, the gossip around the office, the ideas that start and die unaided by anything else. An idle human mind is all it takes. I'm also hearing stories of how other, shall I call them Arab-Americans, are being persecuted and yelled at just for being from that area of the world. We white Americans are so quick to blame anyone that we are yelling at anyone, and in some cases threatening them and being dangerous enough to be thrown in jail. It boggles the mind. I believe this is all Revelations and end times. However, I believe this is only a sign. I hardly believe this is Armegeddon. This was a big horrible tragic event, but this happened hundreds of times per day in multiple locations for several years during both World Wars. Those were wars. This is simply an event, granted it's on a much larger scale, a scale enough to match the technology that our society has created, but it is only one event. Not a war. I forsee us (the US) fixing this problem and moving on. This is certainly a sign of end times, but I just don't believe we're there yet. Time will tell, but in any case, those are my current thoughts and I wanted to add them to my journal so that I may look back and see where I was right and wrong. What you do with that information is YOUR business!

The Great Salt Lake, a Fence and Yuba

August 20, 2001

Ok, when Craig updates a journal, Craig updates a journal!!! I have been skimping on the poor journal latley. I'm either too busy to do anything between work and sleep (which is mostly what I do day to day) or so busy that I lack the time to actually update it. The events in this journal have been churning since about July so this did not all occur on one day!

On July 24^th Paul, Amber, Ivory (Amber's sister) and I all went to the Great Salt Lake and specifically to Antelope Island. We stopped by the visitor center first and learned from a mad who was making soup (true story) the history of the island. We then got lassoed into watching a video about Antelope Island by a very eager employee of the center. Now, I'm not one to turn down a free movie so in we filed and ended up being sat before a 20 inch television. The movie started with music and pictures of the island. It kept this theme for about 20 minutes. By this time we were all heckling the video. Then some crazy lady comes on between scenic pictures and starts reading poetry about how deeply the Great Salt Lake has touched her life. That's all fine and dandy, but it was like hearing a man to sing a love song to an igneous rock. Dude! It's a lake! Remain calm!

After the video we went with one goal: to touch the lake. Now, to get down to the lake you have to wade through the brine flies. Brine flies are like little professional house flies. They don't bite and they are in a hurry. They all follow each other on the Brine Fly Highway which conveniently runs parallel with the shore of the lake. You walk through and the flies hit you and bounce of and go eagerly on their way. As much as I hate bugs it didn’t bother me. Once you get past the highway you enter the lake. We were there to touch the lake and touch the lake we did. Then off to a brisk hike near the top of the world, where Paul tackled me. Yep, that’s me under his foot. Actually I'll admit to setting that picture up. If Paul and I ever got into a fight I'd take him like limp-wristed member of a retirement community! (Just kidding Paul)

Now, many of you don't know that Craig is actually exceptionally automobile maintenance challenged. I know what a tire is, I just cant figure out why they aren't clear when I windex them. In any case, I recently had to replace my spark plugs. To me, this is like telling me I must climb Mount Everest. But I rolled up my sleeves and tore into the job. You see I learned the trick is a string of very colorful obscenities towards the car doesn't hurt during any quick fix. Pretty soon, after becoming very hoarse, I opened the trunk and began. After realizing my engine had not been stolen, I opened the hood and began with the project. Long story short, I have 4 new spark plugs and my car runs silently!

Earlier in the month of July we had a strong wind storm that knocked down the fence in our back yard (from hence forth that fence will be called the Adam's Fence, since Mr. Adams, our neighbor, built it 20 years ago. The fence was weak and leaned over and in sad shape so the wind really did us a favor when it knocked it down. My dad began digging and removing the old fence and measuring. I believe several obscenities were yelled during this job as well. Apparently it helps tools run smoothly, though I'm not sure on that. Soon came time to nail the boards to the posts that he had erected so dad and I began nailing boards on. Nailing boards on is much easier than digging holes and mixing cement, which is why I helped on nailing the boards. Much less cursing during this part as well. Even mom pitched in and now we have a beautiful new strong GREENWOOD FENCE.

Finally, Paul and Amber and I all went boating again. We were supposed to go to Bear Lake in Northern Utah, but instead ended up at Yuba through a strange and mystical turn of events. (Paul's cousins canceled ending any reason within sanity that anybody would intentionally drive that much closer to Idaho.) Yuba is an Indian word meaning "Ancient Waste", as in "Running Bear just Yuba'd all over himself." We didn't think it made sense either but it might explain the brown color of the water. In any case it was fun. Very similar to last time except Paul's parents and other sister Nikki, who played bass in the jazz band, came with us.

Did the brown water turn us back? Of course not! We jumped on in! I also tried what is called "skirfing" which was a terrible sport invented during the cold war. I couldn't even get up! I tried countless times, equaling a total of 4 times, and my only reward was a nose full of the Yubarific water. It's the thought that counts though. With that idea I proclaimed myself skiing champion of the world and moved on with my life. Later that day Paul and Amber and I went swimming and played paddle ball in the water until an unknown assailant broke the paddles. I don't know who it was but I'm glad they didn't catch me. Seriously, we had a fun time and watched some good sunsets and in the end made it out alive suffering at worst a new sunburn.

Slow Weeks

August 3, 2001

It has been a while since I updated. I have been busy working a lot of over time at eBay and not a lot has been happening. Amber has gone away on a three week vacation and Paul is gone visiting family, and flying all over, and he will visit Amber while she is away for 3 or 4 days. It's all confusing so I won't even try to explain it! They are gone leaving me with a lot of walls to stare at! But, I'll survive.

I am looking at about three weeks and I will have the ten thousand I needed to pay off my student loans. This is good, but now I don't know if I should put the money into a down payment on a condo or invest it or actually pay the loan. Paying the loan is what I set out to do in moving back to Salt Lake City, but it would also put me back at ground zero. I'd have nothing and all I could do is start saving again for a down payment on a house or on a condo. Decisions, decisions! I suppose it's a good problem to have though.

I have no pictures in this edition of the journal but I should next time. I went hiking last weekend to a place called Donut Falls and went and drove around Park City for a while. I learned that I need a air conditioner in my car! But like I said, I really have not been up to a whole bunch of activity.

I'll try to complete something to tell you all about for next time. And of course to get some pics for you!

Las Vegas Trip

July 12, 2001

Well, the fourth of July has occurred. Paul was out of town so Amber and I trekked over to West Jordan Park and watched the fireworks after making some dinner at her condo. We did take pics but none of them turned out, but the most exciting thing we did was hike a fence and walk along the top of it for about a quarter mile to get to the park from her place. The fence was along the border of a battered women's complex, which is really the place to be seen climbing fences! But we didn’t get caught and no women were additionally battered, which is really a point I try to make when going out--no battered women.

The next week Paul and Amber and myself headed to Las Vegas, Nevada and had a raucous good time. We began driving and arrived in Vegas about 6:00. We immediately got lost and made a phone call or two and found the hotel somehow. It was good to get that out of the way! We checked in and were satisfied with the room and headed out to the grandiose strip. We walked for 6 hours that night! We decided to see a few of the sights, and by which I mean casinos! Not much else in Vegas. But that’s why people go to Vegas! I actually really enjoy Vegas for the sheer gaudiness of the place. The carpet and the lights and all the old folks gambling their finances away. It becomes this circus where you walk around and say to yourself, "Oh my heck! Is this for real? People actually want to do this?" over and over at every turn.

Anyway, we walked around and saw some of the hotels we had never seen before. We managed to crawl up the fire escape of the Luxor hotel which is neat because its shaped like a pyramid so at the top you just look down and you can see all the rooms. We also saw New York New York and some casino that is made up to look like Paris. Complete with the Eiffel tower. We also went and saw the Stratosphere hotel and took the elevator to the top and saw the lay of the land from the top. Most of Vegas is malls. Every Casino is so proud of their mall, but they are all the same. Just fancy stores, as if people come from miles around to shop for classy items at the Bellagio. But someone must because every hotel has this large size mall in it. Peddling everything from Jewelry to Armani suits to toys, just like every other mall in America.

We did manage to meet some people. I like to carry on with people I have no business carrying on with and during our dinner at Excalibur I met some folks from Germany, I met a Brazilian woman at the Stratosphere (where we rode the space needle launcher of death, or whatever it’s called). I also met a girl from the Philippines briefly as well as a smattering of Londoners. The most rewarding part is to just sit down for a while. Eating was very nice. And it's a scam too because you don't care what you pay for the food, as long as you are sitting you are very happy.

We finally dropped Paul off at the airport because, as a pilot, he had to fly to Denver for his next flight to start his work week. Then Amber and drove back to Salt Lake and I made it to work on time that night by ten minutes. No one was killed so it was a successful trip. Now, we just gotta get my Birthday out of the way!

Yuba is a Lake

June 30, 2001

Well I am back from Yuba. Had a grand time on the trip. Paul owns a boat and invited Amber and I to enjoy the sun at Yuba Lake in Central Utah. Nothing like the power of a boat on the water I guess. The day started when Amber and I went to Paul's house and began preparing the boat. This took Paul several hours but for Amber and I about 5 minutes. We just threw our stuff on board and sat back for the ride! We met Tesa and Tom and their baby, James. Tesa is Paul's sister and Tom is her husband. Yuba is about four hours south of Salt Lake City so we drove there. No major stories on the drive. We listened to some Beatles and some Fleetwood Mac and had no adventures there!

Now, if you've ever been boating you know that boats take about a lifetime of work, so we had to prepare the boat for floatage. Apparently they sink if you don't. While on the lake we went tubing. This is a foolish sport where you lay on an inner tube and get drug behind a boat at top speed being smacked by water until you fall off. All the while you end up grinning like an idiot which just adds to the confusion of the ordeal. I also got a chance to drive the boat around a little bit. We also spend a good amount of time throwing rocks in the lake.

The waves got rough on the third day so we packed up and did everything in reverse and came home. I had to work that night so I was considerably tired and sunburned. But the weekend was fun over all. The next big trip is to Las Vegas with (who else) Paul and Amber. I'm sure that will be the next journal entry! Till then, I'm outta here!

Summer Fun

June 21, 2001

Well, I have had a grand little month. A few days ago Amber invited me to go Lagoon for free, which is a local amusement park. It rained and it got cancelled but we were able to regroup and go last week. It was fun. I did take some pictures but long story short they didn’t turn out so you’ll just have to take my word for it! For the first time in my life I went on some roller coasters and seriously felt really good about throwing up. I didn’t throw up but apparently my age is catching up with me, or possibly my lunch.

The next weekend Eddie and I went camping. We went up to Provo Canyon and saw two deer, a horde of little creatures called put guts, which are like chipmunks minus the cute little stripe that separates chipmunks from rats. We also saw an honest to God bear. Real, wild, live bear. Yes, you can call me Steve Irwin, George Page or Marty Staufer at this time. The thing of it is we saw this monster less than a quarter mile from our campsite. We set up camp and the decided to find some hills for Eddie to four wheel drive on, because he enjoys that, which is beyond me, but whatever. We pulled out and saw the bear. In our excitement we pulled the car closer to get a good picture and in the process spooked him and he ran away. He was only about 100 feet away from us and he was staring at us. Again, no pictures, but I do have Eddie as a back up and he can verify the animal’s bearfulness.

We also went to Timpanogus Cave, which we have since called Timpadingding. The ancient Indian word for Timpadingding means "very large dingding". Indians were not sure what a dingding was but they figured this mountain was a very large one. I am of course joking. The Indians knew full well what a dingding was. Dirty minded Indians! (No offense to the Native Americans who are reading this Journal. As I often say to my Native American friends, "How". That usually results in Indian items being thrown at me such as papuses and Canada, but I feel the risk is worth the comedy.)

Next weekend I am off to Yuba Lake with Paul, Amber, and Paul’s sister and her husband. I will take the magical camera and hopefully have some pictures for you.

So far this has been a very eventful summer and plans are all ready coming together for fall so all of life is looking up. Also, I am still taking donations to destroy my student loans so your funds are still welcome.

Back to California

June 11, 2001

Recently I went to California with my father. He had a business meeting and I went with him to visit friends while he was there.

We left Tuesday and stopped for the night in Nevada on the state line at a casino. I brought my mountain bike and it's a good thing I did because behind the hotel they had some hills. I brought a bike pump but it was broken so I had to get the maintenance guy to pump up my tire. Then I went for a ride on the hills but the ground was very sandy and it made riding impossible so I went riding around the city. It was very nice but the sun was going down and all the sprinklers were on. I went through a golf course and the pavement was very wet and even though I was trying to be careful I crashed and messed up my elbow and shoulder. It wasn't a big deal, just a war wound. But it was fun. Then my dad and me went to the casino to eat dinner and we watched a band play in the casino. They were country but it was interesting.

Then we slept and woke up and drove to California. I dropped my dad off at his hotel and the weather was very nice. I then drove 45 minutes south to my old school and saw Josh and Tim, friends from college who now work in the computer center at the school. We just walked around and talked and reminisced for the afternoon. Then I drove to Escondido to see Michelle, my friend. I would have seen Rochelle, her roommate, too, but she was in Illinois for a meeting for work. So it was just Michelle and I. We went for a bike ride to a restaurant and ate and talked life.

The next day drove back to the school in Costa Mesa. I went for another bike ride around Costa Mesa, the old hang outs. Just by myself. Among other things I observed that gas in California is ridiculously expensive. Then I met Annie and Tim in the bookstore where Annie works. Her and Josh and some other kid I don't know all went out to eat lunch at some pizza place that looked good but the little chickadee took a LONG time on our orders. Then I went to the beach alone. I swam for 10 mins but its boring alone. Then I slept in the California sun for 30 minutes. Then I went for a bike ride between two piers. I wish I was in school in California again because I'd do that once a week if not more. It was a lot of fun.

Then I went back to the school and watched Tim and Josh play infrared battle ship on their palm pilots (beating head against board) and later we all met Mason and his friend. She was a radio DJ and program director in ID of all places. She was intense. I really liked her. Mason and her and me and Josh and Tim went to a park and chucked some Frisbees around. Then Josh and Tim had to go so her and I and Mason went to Huntington Beach and ate fish tacos and walked around. Then we ended up at another friend of masons. They just talked about how much better Hawaii is than California. Finally it was 10 and time to go. I went to Tim's and slept over.

The next day I met dad at the hotel and we drove back to Utah and made it just in time for me to get to work. Speaking of work, I've been working in a new queue, www.Half.com. It's been going ok. Kind of hard and boring, but its beginning to make sense at this point.

Well talk later.

Bye